Xu Bing Writes Commemorative Words onto Dusty Surface

To an average observer, art can sometimes be deceptively simple, and that is a perfectly appropriate description of Xu Bing’s latest installation. Literally, it’s a cryptic poem written on a dust-filled floor, where letters in a typewriter-like typeface are perfectly stenciled into ashy particles. Viewers will be surprised to learn, however, that the dust they’re looking at is in fact collected from the streets of lower Manhattan post-September 11th. Xu Bing wanted to recreate the sooty film that covered NYC after the tragic event within the gallery space. The Zen Buddhist poem was added by Bing to bring solace to those whom the event affected.